Why are my PowerShell exit codes always “0”?

Question

I've got a PowerShell script as follows

##teamcity[progressMessage 'Beginning build']
# If the build computer is not running the appropriate version of .NET, then the build will not run. Throw an error immediately.
if( (ls "$env:windir\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0*") -eq $null ) {
    throw "This project requires .NET 4.0 to compile. Unfortunately .NET 4.0 doesn't appear to be installed on this machine."
    ##teamcity[buildStatus status='FAILURE' ]
}

##teamcity[progressMessage 'Setting up variables']
# Set up variables for the build script
$invocation = (Get-Variable MyInvocation).Value
$directorypath = Split-Path $invocation.MyCommand.Path
$v4_net_version = (ls "$env:windir\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0*").Name
$nl = [Environment]::NewLine

Copy-Item -LiteralPath "$directorypath\packages\NUnit.2.6.2\lib\nunit.framework.dll" "$directorypath\Pandell.Tests\bin\debug" -Force

##teamcity[progressMessage 'Using msbuild.exe to build the project']
# Build the project using msbuild.exe.
# Note we've already determined that .NET is already installed on this computer.
cmd /c C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\$v4_net_version\msbuild.exe "$directorypath\Pandell.sln" /p:Configuration=Release
cmd /c C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\$v4_net_version\msbuild.exe "$directorypath\Pandell.sln" /p:Configuration=Debug

# Break if the build throws an error.
if(! $?) {
    throw "Fatal error, project build failed"
    ##teamcity[buildStatus status='FAILURE' ]
}

##teamcity[progressMessage 'Build Passed']
# Good, the build passed
Write-Host "$nl project build passed."  -ForegroundColor Green


##teamcity[progressMessage 'running tests']
# Run the tests.
cmd /c $directorypath\build_tools\nunit\nunit-console.exe $directorypath\Pandell.Tests\bin\debug\Pandell.Tests.dll

# Break if the tests throw an error.
if(! $?) {
    throw "Test run failed."
    ##teamcity[buildStatus status='FAILURE' ]
}

##teamcity[progressMessage 'Tests passed']

From what I'm lead to believe, an uncaught Throw will result in an exit code of 1, but unfortunately TeamCity is saying otherwise.

[19:32:20]Test run failed.
[19:32:20]At C:\BuildAgent\work\e903de7564e599c8\build.ps1:44 char:2
[19:32:20]+     throw "Test run failed."
[19:32:20]+     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[19:32:20]    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (Test run failed.:String) [],
[19:32:20]   RuntimeException
[19:32:20]    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Test run failed.
[19:32:20]
[19:32:20]Process exited with code 0
[19:32:20]Publishing internal artifacts
[19:32:20][Publishing internal artifacts] Sending build.finish.properties.gz file
[19:32:20]Build finished

It might also be important to note that my Execution Mode is set to Execute .ps1 script with "-File" argument.

I tried changing it to Put script into PowerShell stdin with "-Command -" arguments, but then it failed with an exit code of 1 even with passing tests. I'm sure that running it as -File is going to be the right way.

If I open up the script located at C:\BuildAgent\work\e903de7564e599c8\build.ps1 and run it manually in CMD, it does the same thing... I.e., the failing tests fail, and the %errorlevel% is still 0.

Yet, if I run it in PowerShell and call $LASTEXITCODE, it returns the right code every time.

Answer 1

I was having this exact issue while running with the -file, but for some reason the trap syntax or the 'exit' syntax provided by Kevin wasn't working in my scenario.

I am not sure why, but just in case somebody else hits the same problem, I used the below syntax and it worked for me:

try{
    #DO SOMETHING HERE
}
catch
{
    Write-Error $_
    ##teamcity[buildStatus status='FAILURE']
    [System.Environment]::Exit(1)
}

Answer 2

Until this (presumably) gets closed as dup of my self-answer of an older question, I'll summarise the cleanest solution here:

• Most of the other answers involve emitting something to the stderr from the PowerShell bit. This can be accomplished directly with TeamCity via the Format stderr output as option (set it to Error instead of the default, which is Warning)

• However, critically, it's also necessary to switch on the "Fail build if: ... An error message is logged by (sic) build runner" under "Failure Conditions" (if any of the other answers work for you, you'll likely have this switched on already but IME it's very easy to forget!)

Answer 3

This is a known issue with PowerShell. Executing a script with -file returns an exit code of 0 when it shouldn't.

(Update: The links below no longer work. Please look for, or report, this problem on PowerShell: Hot (1454 ideas) – Windows Server)

• https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/details/777375/powershell-exe-does-not-set-an-exit-code-when-file-is-used

• https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/details/750653/powershell-exe-doesn-t-return-correct-exit-codes-when-using-the-file-option

Since using -command wasn't working for you, you could try adding a trap at the top of the script:

trap
{
    write-output $_
    ##teamcity[buildStatus status='FAILURE' ]
    exit 1
}

The above should result in a proper exit code when an exception is thrown.

Answer 4

None of these options worked for me in my PowerShell script for whatever reason. I spent hours on it.

For me the best option was to put a layer between TeamCity and PowerShell. So I simply wrote a C# console application which calls the PowerShell script.

The way I do it is, in TeamCity we call a script named: RemoteFile.ps1

With script arguments: %system.RemoteServerFQDN% %system.RemoteUser% %system.RemoteUserPassword% %system.RemoteScriptName% %system.RemotePropertiesFile% %system.BuildVersion% %system.RunList%

param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    $Computername,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    $Username,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    $Password,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    $ScriptName,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    $Propfile,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    $Version,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string[]]$DeploymentTypes
)

$securePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force $Password
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential $Username, $securePassword
Write-Host "Readying to execute invoke-command..."
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Computername -Credential $cred -ScriptBlock {       D:\Deployment\PowershellWrapper.exe $using:ScriptName $using:Propfile $using:Version      $using:DeploymentTypes } -ArgumentList $ScriptName,$Propfile,$Version,$DeploymentTypes

Which exists on the remote server in the specified location.

Then that file calls this: powershellwrapper.exe also in the specified location (my script has four parameters to pass to the PowerShell script)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace PowershellWrapper
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                string argFull = @"""{0} {1} {2} {3}""";
                string arg0 = args[0];
                string arg1 = args[1];
                string arg2 = args[2];
                string arg3 = args[3];
                string argFinal = string.Format(argFull, arg0, arg1, arg2, arg3);

                ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
                startInfo.FileName = @"powershell.exe";
                startInfo.Arguments = argFinal;
                startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = false;
                startInfo.RedirectStandardError = false;
                startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
                startInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
                startInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
                Process process = new Process();
                process.StartInfo = startInfo;
                process.Start();
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0} Exception caught.", e);
                Console.WriteLine("An error occurred in the deployment.", e);
                Console.WriteLine("Please contact [e-mail] if error occurs.");
            }
        }
    }
}

And that calls my script with four parameters. The script being the first parameter, plus three arguments. So essentially what is going on here is that I'm executing the PowershellWrapper.exe instead of the PowerShell script itself to capture the erroneous exit code 0's, and it still reports the full script running back to the TeamCity log.

I hope that makes sense. It works like a charm for us.

Answer 5

Using -ErrorAction stop on a command returns an Exit code 1 by default and is showing it also in TeamCity without adding a Failure Condition. We will now implement this behaviour by default for every PowerShell command using $ErrorActionPreference = "Stop";.